The present invention relates generally to rifles, and more particularly, to devices for catching and holding rifle shell casings ejected from a rifle, especially automatic and semi-automatic military and sporting rifles.
Typically, automatic and semi-automatic military and sporting rifles are provided with an ejection port formed in the rifle body adjacent the shell firing chamber for laterally ejecting spent shell casings after each firing of the rifle. Representative examples of such rifles are the M16-A1 and M16-A2 automatic military rifles used by the United States military branches and many law enforcement agencies and the AR-15 and CAR-15 semiautomatic sporting rifles which are sold through sporting goods suppliers and like outlets throughout the United States.
Since the greatest proportion of military personnel and sportsmen shoot a rifle in a right-handed manner, i.e., with the rifle butt stabilized against the right shoulder and the rifle barrel supported by the left hand for trigger operation by the right hand, the shell ejection port in such rifles is formed in the right-hand side of the rifle body for shell ejectment laterally away from the shooter. Disadvantageously, however, when such rifles are used by left-handed shooters, the hot shell casings tend to be ejected toward the body of the shooter and have been known to cause a left-handed shooter to accidentally discharge the rifle when struck by a discharged shell, thereby posing a substantial danger to bystanders, e.g., other shooters and spectators on a rifle range. At least one such accidental discharge of a rifle has resulted in death. Moreover, even with right-handed shooters, because such rifles tend to discharge spent shells with considerable force, typically sufficient to propel a discharged shell 5-10 feet, a danger exists on rifle ranges and in other situations involving two or more shooters in relatively close proximity to one another that one shooter's discharged shells may strike an adjacent shooter and cause him similarly to accidentally fire his rifle.
Apart from such potential danger, spent shell casings are, in any event, discharged onto the surrounding ground at the shooting location, necessitating pick-up of the spent shells after shooting is completed. Shell clean-up is particularly a problem at military rifle ranges and the like used for instructional purposes. Because of the large number of rifle firings taking place on a regular basis at such ranges, the number of discharged shells to be retrieved is considerable, sometimes necessitating complete closing of the range for a sufficient period of time to retrieve all spent shells from the grounds.